


Bring Me Back Home

by amycooper



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Gen or Pre-Slash, Hurt/Comfort, The Empty, canon divergent after 13x22
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-05-05 21:05:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14627028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amycooper/pseuds/amycooper
Summary: Rowena and the boys rescue Gabriel (and a couple others) from the Empty.





	Bring Me Back Home

“And you’re sure this will work, Rowena?”

 

“Aye, of course I’m sure.”  Rowena retorted, offended by Dean’s question.  “Who discovered how to re-open the rift to the other world after you and your brother were foolish enough to kill the only remaining archangels so that all those people can return home?”

 

“Foolish!  If we didn’t gank them-”

 

“No one’s doubting your abilities,” Sam interjected.

 

Rowena gave a little huff before surveying the collected ingredient, triple checking to ensure they were all present and accounted for.  It had taken the four of them nearly a month to even figure out how to pull this off and much longer to gather the ingredients. But it helped, in a way, to keep their minds off Mary and Jack leaving.  They’d chosen to help rebuild in the other world, which was understandable but still difficult to accept. Now they just had to fix heaven, and to do that, they needed to rescue some angels from the Empty.

 

“Now when I open the portal to the Empty, you’ll only have an hour at most that I can hold back this…?”

 

“Cosmic Entity,” Cas supplied.

 

“Cosmic Entity,” Rowena said. “It should be enough time?”

 

“As long as your spell for locating the angels we want works,” Dean said and then, catching Rowena’s glare he added, “which I’m sure it will.”

 

As Rowena began the spell, the three boys watched, Castiel pensive, Sam hopeful, and Dean rolling on his feet, ready for action though hopefully they’d be no actual fight in this mission.  As Rowena began to chant as she cast in the last item and her eyes began to glow violet as ancient power surged through her.

 

And then an emptiness appeared before them.  Rowena’s chanted changed, as she now switched to keeping the Cosmic Entity back.  She gave a brief nod back to the boys and they stepped forward, Dean, Sam, then Cas into the absorbing nothingness.

 

“I don’t like this place,” Dean said, looking around.  He turned back and he could see the library, with Rowena still in it, behind them.  Looking forward, the vast lack of anything disturbing him. “Let’s get this done.” And with that Dean took a few steps forward and began chanting the spell they all memorized, inserting Hannah’s name when appropriate.  

 

Cas took off in another.  There were so many of his siblings at rest in this place, many from his own hand.  But they could only drag out three. Of all the lives he took, he could only reverse one.  Rowena’s spell to hold back the keeper of this plane of existence would only work this once before he likely adapted to it.

 

Sam watched Dean and Cas walk off, the distance preventing the spells from overlapping and confusing.  Once Dean and Cas’ chants were but nothing but a distant susurrus. Sam began his.

 

When he finished, Sam looked around in alarm.  Initially nothing seemed to happen. But then, after a moment it almost looked like, yes, the nothingness by his feet seemed to ooze away revealing a prone form at his feet.

 

“Gabriel.”

 

He didn’t hear, of course.  They had no way of actually waking the angels up in the Empty, but the lore suggested they’d wake, eventually, once dragged back to the normal plane of existence. Sam squatted down.  He was about to pick him up when he hesitated.

 

Did he have any right to do this?

 

After all that pain, all that suffering, that he had endured for once Gabriel looked at peace.  Lying on his side, arm outstretched and hands gentle curled, face lax with a slight smile, Gabriel looked more content than Sam had ever seen him.  Sam moved a loose strand of stray hair from Gabriel’s face. Maybe this was heaven for angels. No more work, not more duty, no more sacrifice, just peaceful rest.  By taking him back to Earth, he’d have to continue to struggle with the pain and trauma, of which Sam knew it all too well. Hell, when did he last sleep peacefully through the night.

 

“I thought you said Hannah was a dude now,” Dean’s voice startled Sam, and he stood up quickly.  

 

“What?”

 

“Hannah.” Dean repeated.  He was carrying the slumbering angel in question who was now back in what appeared to be Caroline’s body.

 

“I don’t know,” Sam said.

 

“I think they’re appearance has more to do with how they see themselves,” Cas said, carrying Samandriel.  “Maybe that would explain my new coat.” Cas frowned thinking, “Although it wasn’t until-”

 

“You know what, whatever.  We got the angels we came for.  Sam, you gonna pick up Gabe? We’re kind of on the clock.”

 

“Yeah, sure,” Sam bent down again, picking up the smaller archangel and, with one last look, followed Cas and Dean back to the bunker.

 

“Whew,” Rowena said, collapsing into a chair once they were all through.  

 

“How long do you think it’ll be before they wake?”  Dean asked.

 

They all looked at each other blankly.  

 

“Okay, ah,” Dean adjusted his hold on Hannah, “let’s get these sleeping beauties in beds then.”

 

Rowena watched them march down the hall, then got herself a glass of wine. 

 

***

 

Sam arranged Gabriel on the bed and, after a moment took off his shoes and put them aside.  Gabriel still had that lax blissful look. They all did. 

 

“Sorry,” Sam said quietly.

 

Dean joined Sam in the room.  The two brothers stood by Gabriel for a moment.  While Dean had been uncertain about relying on the flighty archangel at first, few things warmed Dean up to people like self-sacrifice, something Dean himself was all too familiar with.  Sam was surprised into it Dean was about how into getting Gabriel back since the two often clashed.

 

“Kind of funny in a way,” Dean said after a moment.

 

“Oh?” 

 

“Yeah, I mean, all those times he fooled us into thinking he’s dead, almost feels kind of like we’re fooling him now by bringing him back.  You know, like, ‘Surprise! You’re not dead anymore!’”

 

Sam gave him a face.

 

“Yeah, well anyway, Hannah was an odd choice.”

 

“No, she makes sense.  She’d be a good counterweight to Naomi, she has a strong sense of duty, and she has a lot of leadership potential.”

 

“Yeah, but,” Dean lowered his voice, “back when they tortured Cas she-”

 

“She stood up for me in the end,” Cas said walking it.  “It was the last thing she did.” Cas glanced down at Gabriel and sighed. “I’m not saying I don’t have any conflicting feelings about what happened, but Sam’s right.  She’s the best person for the job.”

 

Neither had to question Castiel about why he decided to bring Samandriel back.

 

As one the three turned to leave.

 

“I just hope Hannah and Samandriel are enough for now,” Cas said as they walked through the hall towards the kitchen.

 

“Well, and Gabe too.”

 

“When he’s ready but it may be foolish to bring him back to heaven while he’s still running so low on grace,” Castiel said.  “I don’t trust Naomi enough to leave Gabriel in heaven with her while he’s so weak.”

 

“You think she’d go back to brainwashing angels?”

 

“It’s possible, especially since Gabriel’s grace is so vital to maintaining heaven and Gabriel has a history of running away from responsibility.  She’d have incentive and she clearly has no regret over doing it in the past,” Cas said. “While I have faith in Hannah’s ability to organize the other angels to resist her, but it still seems foolish to bring Gabriel back right away.”

 

Sam took a seat at the table while Dean start on dinner with Cas.  It hadn’t really hit him that really, he’ll probably never see Gabriel again once he left for heaven.  The two had formed a type of connection, especially after he was rescued but Ketch, and he found himself saddened by the thought of him leaving.

 

Sam sighed and left Cas and his brother to work together on dinner in favor of grabbing a book and heading back to Gabriel’s room to read.

 

The next couple days past quietly.  Rowena had left early the next morning, leaving Sam, Dean, and Cas keeping house while their angelic charges slept.  The lore was rather vague on how long it would take for an angel to awaken once rescued from the Empty, so they tried not to worry over it.

 

At first they all just hung out, which was nice as it was rare.  Dean went on a cleaning binge on the second day and Sam took some research into Gabe’s room.  Cas frequently checked on the slumbering angels and helped Sam with some translations. Hannah woke first, bright and early on the third day.  By the time Castiel had updated her on what had happened since her death, Samandriel had awoken and Cas had to start all the way from the top again.  Sam had expected Gabriel to wake up any minute, but by late afternoon, the other two angels were ready to leave and Gabriel was still sleeping soundly and contently.

 

“I’m going to drive them to the playground,” Cas said.  “Samandriel still has wings and could take us, but then I would have no way back.”

“Really?”

 

“He died before the fall, Dean.”

 

“Oh.”

 

Cas hesitated, “It would also be good to have some time with them before…”

 

“I gotcha.  Have fun, don’t stay out past curfew,” Dean said.  Sam picked up a pizza for dinner and Dean disappeared in the garage shortly after.  Sam grabbed the laptop and brought in into Gabriel’s bedroom. The archangel still hadn’t moved.  With a sigh and stretched on on the bed next to him and cued up an episode of “How it’s Made.” 

 

Two episodes later, Sam felt something move besides him.  He glanced over to Gabriel then paused the show. The archangel had rolled over to his side again, much like how he was when Sam found him in the Empty.  His eyes were still closed, but his brow was furrowed.

 

“Gabriel?  Hey, Gabriel.  It’s time to wake up.”

 

Gabriel groaned and turned away.

 

“Come on,” Sam gentle shook him.

 

“What?  Where?” Gabriel flinched away and shot up, looking around dazed.  “Where’s Michael?” He blinked rapidly and started feeling his chest where he was stabbed.

 

“It’s okay.  You’re safe. Michael’s dead.”

 

“And Dean?  Cas? Everyone else?”  

 

“Everyone’s alright.  The people from the other world all returned.  Jack and Mom stayed with them. Jack’s bartering peace between the humans and angels and they’re rebuilding,” Sam explained.  “Jack said he’ll try to learn how to do the rift himself, like he did before he was born so who knows, maybe we’ll see them again but…” Sam shrugged.  “But for the first time, in a long time, there isn’t any big threat looming over us.”

 

Well, except heaven falling but Sam had learned once that it’s not a good idea to throw too much at the archangel at once.  That would be a conversation for later.

 

Gabriel seemed to absorb all this.  “And I...I died?”

 

“Yeah, but Dean, Cas, and I were able to bring you back.”  Sam got off the bed. 

 

“How?”

 

“Come on, I think there’s still a couple of pizza slices left over.  I’ll explain it to you over dinner.”

 

It was after a couple slices that Gabriel brought up the heaven issue himself.  

 

“Yeah, Cas told me about the situation when we were walking to camp,” Gabriel said.  “Hey, Dean-o, nice makeup. That’s a good look on you.”

 

Dean, who had grease smeared on the side of his face, grinned.  “Looks like Sleeping Beauty finally awoke. Did you prince plant a kiss on you?”

 

Sam gave Dean a bitch face, which was totally lost on him since he already had his head in the fridge, looking for a beer.  Dean came back with a beer for everyone.

 

“Yeah, Cas thinks I should go back to heaven.  Says they need me up there.”

 

“Yeah, but Gabe in the end it’s your decision,” Sam said.

 

Dean shot Sam a look.  

 

“What, it is.  We can’t force him,”  Sam said. More to the point, Sam learned that trying to force Gabriel to do anything usually backfires.  “But listen, you don’t have to figure it all out today. Stay here for a few days, get your sea legs back.”

 

“Gabriel was not at sea,” Cas said as he stepped into the room. Dean got him a beer which Cas left unopened. Dean and Cas fell into an easy banter and it didn’t escape Sam’s notice that Gabriel grew quiet.  After a few minutes the archangel excused himself. Sam followed behind.

 

“What’s wrong Gabe-” Sam said, then added when he could see the excuse on his lips “-really.”

 

Gabriel sat heavily on the bed.  “I don’t know Sam. I’m not much of a team player.  I don’t know about this whole leadership thing.”

 

Sam spun the desk chair around and sat down.  “Then don’t.”

 

Gabriel raised an eyebrow.

 

“I mean it.  This is your choice and we can’t force you into it, but you do have to understand, your family needs you right now.”

 

Gabriel huffed.

 

“And nobody’s saying you need to become king of heaven or whatever.  You don’t have to be the leader, not if you don’t want to.”

 

Gabriel seemed to consider this.

 

“But whatever you decide, I’ll back you up.  And the bunker’s aways open to you.” Sam got up.

 

“Okay,” Gabriel said and, as Sam turned towards the door.  “And Sam?”

 

“Yes Gabriel.”

 

“Thank you.”


End file.
